Volunteer Park Landmark Nomination
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Volunteer Park Landmark Nomination "Concourse, concert ground and formal garden on top of hill. Cemetery beyond Conservatory, Reservoir on left has straight flaring sides with which walks with steps line up," caption on photograph written by Roland Cotterill, Secretary of Board of Park Commissioners, 1913 Photo by Frank H. Nowell, Photo #2695-22, Olmsted Brothers Volunteer Park Photo Album Courtesy of the National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site "...a birdseye view of Volunteer Park as taken from the water tower recently. We are very proud of this picture...inasmuch as it sets forth so comprehensively the great variety of landscape and other formal work which has been carried out in Volunteer Park in accordance with your plan." -Roland Cotterill Secretary of Board of Park Commissioners, to Olmsted Brothers, Oct 23, 1913 Submitted by Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks February 2011 Volunteer Park Landmark Nomination Name Volunteer Park Year Built 1909-1910 (Common, present or historic) Street and Number 1400 East Prospect Street . Assessor’s File No. 2925049087 . Legal Description: The northeast quarter of the northeast quarter (NE ¼ NE ¼) of Section Twenty-nine (29) in Township Twenty-five (25) north (N) of Range Four (4) east (E), Willamette Meridian, also beginning at the northeast (NE) corner of the northeast quarter (NE ¼) of Section Twenty-nine (29) in Township Twenty-five (25) north (N) of Range Four (4) east (E), Willamette Meridian, thence south one degree thirty-six minutes forty-eight seconds (1°36’48”) west a distance of fourteen hundred thirty-three and fifty-two one- hundredths (1433.52) feet along the east line of Section 29 in Township 25 north Range 4 east, thence north (N) eighty-eight degrees eighteen minutes twenty-seven seconds (88°18’27”) west a distance of four hundred eighty-two and ten one-hundredths (482.10) feet, thence north (N) eighty-eight degrees eighteen minutes thirty-one seconds (88°18’31”) west a distance of two hundred seventy-two and five one-hundredths (272.05) feet, thence north (N) eighty-eight degrees eighteen minutes thirty-eight seconds (88°18’38”) west a distance of two hundred seventy-two and four one-hundredths (272.04) feet, thence north (N) eighty-eight degrees eighteen minutes twenty-nine seconds (88°18’29”) west a distance of three hundred eleven and seven one-hundredths (311.07) feet to a point on the west line of the northwest (NW) quarter of the northeast (NE) quarter of the northeast (NE) quarter of Section 29 in Township 25 north Range 4 east, thence north (N) one degree eighteen minutes twenty seconds east, more or less, a distance of fourteen hundred five and sixty-nine one- hundredths (1405.69) feet, more or less, to a point on the north line of Section 29 in Township 25 north Range 4 east, 2 Volunteer Park Landmark Nomination thence south (S) eighty-nine degrees thirty minutes and five seconds (89°30’05”) east a distance of one thousand three hundred forty-five (1345) feet, more or less, along the north line of Section 29 in Township 25 north Range 4 east to the point of beginning. Also the east one-half (E ½) of blocks E and F of Phinney’s Addition to the City of Seattle as recorded in Vol. 1, Page 175 of King County Plats. Also the portion of Eleventh (11th) Avenue North in the City of Seattle from the north line of Furth’s Addition to the City of Seattle and the north line of Phinney’s Addition to the City of Seattle as vacated by ordinance 26793. Plat Name: _________________ Block ___________________Lot ______________ Present Owner: Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation Present Use: Public Park, Reservoir Address: 100 Dexter Avenue, Seattle, WA 98109 Original Owner: Seattle Board of Park Commissioners Original Use: Public Park, Reservoir Site Architect: John Charles Olmsted, Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects Builder: Seattle Board of Park Commissioners, Seattle Public Works Department 3 Volunteer Park Landmark Nomination Table of Contents I. Physical Description .................................................................................................. 5 A. Overall Character and Style B. Spatial Organization C. Vehicular and Pedestrian Circulation D. Topography and Grading E. Vegetation F. Buildings, Structures and Water Features G. Small-Scale Elements (Memorials, Site Furnishings, Artworks) II. Statement of Significance ......................................................................................23 A. Summary B. National, Local and Neighborhood Historic Contexts C. History of Volunteer Park D. Changes Since 1975 III. Bibliography……….............................................................................................44 IV. Appendices A. Illustrations …...........................................................................................52 1. Current Plans, Aerials and Diagrams 2. Current Photographs 3. Historic Plans/Aerials 4. Historic Photographs and Postcards B. Olmsted Plant Lists ..................................................................................97 C. Volunteer Park Timeline ..........................................................................98 4 Volunteer Park Landmark Nomination I. Physical Description Seattle’s Volunteer Park was designed by John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920), the senior partner of the national firm Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects, located in Brookline, Massachusetts. The Olmsted brothers (John Charles and Frederick Law, Jr.) were trained in and continued the practice and design philosophy of their father, Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. The senior Olmsted founded the profession of landscape architecture and designed New York’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, the Boston park system, and hundreds of other parks, estates, campuses, exhibition grounds, subdivisions and other designed landscapes across the nation. John Charles Olmsted prepared a comprehensive park system plan for Seattle in 1903, meeting with city leaders during a month-long trip to Seattle. He expanded the plan in 1908 to include areas recently annexed to the City, including Columbia City, Ballard and West Seattle. Olmsted visited the sites of the nearly one hundred parks and boulevards proposed in the plan. His observations have shaped the form and design of the park system Seattle enjoys today. The Olmsted Brothers firm prepared designs for more than twenty individual parks, squares, and boulevards as well. Volunteer Park stands out as one of the most complete and well-preserved example of the firm’s design approach for city parks in Seattle. (Figure 1 - Vicinity Map) Overall, few substantive changes to Volunteer Park have occurred since 1975, the date that the park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The most notable alterations since 1975 include a series of changes to the Art Museum forecourt plantings (c. 1990 to present), redesign of the children's play area and replacement of the play equipment (1991), and construction of a new greenhouse in the maintenance area (1991). The park, including the Reservoir and Gate House, retains an overall integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Volunteer Park is remarkably well-preserved a century after its construction. A. Overall Character and Style Volunteer Park is an urban park designed in the naturalistic, pastoral/picturesque American romantic style that is closely associated with the Olmsted firm. The elements of this style include irregular open lawns bordered by shrub and tree plantings, carefully framed and modulated views, one or more circulation loops, and areas intended for crowds and social interaction which are treated in a more geometric and formal manner. The Olmsted Brothers retained Olmsted, Sr.'s belief that people would receive psychological benefits from being surrounded by and contemplating natural scenery. This view was widely- held during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and continues to have adherents. As a result, Olmsted-designed parks emphasize space for non-programmed, passive recreation and flexible activities. Volunteer Park’s open, interconnected lawns and bordering masses of trees express that design philosophy. Like New York’s Central Park, Volunteer Park incorporates a reservoir. It is one of the first two built as part of the City’s Cedar River water supply system. The park also includes the Seattle 5 Volunteer Park Landmark Nomination Asian Art Museum, a Conservatory and related support facilities, a water storage standpipe/observation tower, a bandstand, a shelter house, a play area with wading pool, and tennis courts. The park plays a dual role as a destination park within a citywide park system, and as a neighborhood park in one of Seattle’s most prominent neighborhoods. The plantings reflect this formal and informal character. The extensive variety of non-native plant species and rows of trees emphasize formality while incorporating remnant native trees and clustered informal plantings to define irregular open spaces. While most of the plants are not native, they are arranged in a naturalistic way that makes them appear to belong to a native matrix, but with added variety and color. In the 1903 park system plan, John C. Olmsted proposed that Volunteer Park be the most urban and refined of Seattle’s parks. He recognized that its setting in a fashionable new neighborhood required a character different from more wild and natural parks, such as Ravenna Park and Bailey Peninsula (now Seward Park), in outlying neighborhoods. B.